Geosciences’ wide scope offers hope amid the climate crisis

Three Kenyan universities – the University of Nairobi, the Technical University of Kenya and Tharaka University – are establishing studies in geosciences as valuable disciplines in their academic curricula.

Geosciences, which focus on studies of the Earth, are attracting greater attention in Africa and globally as humanity copes with ongoing dynamic interactions that have culminated in or are driven by climate change.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 names three critical climate challenges facing humanity – extreme weather events, critical change to Earth’s systems (a new entrant this year), and biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.

Geoscience scholars say the climate crisis debate revolving around global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable development and geopolitics in the energy transition will decide the fate of our planet and the well-being of future generations.

Future of geosciences bright

The three universities participated in the Geo-East African Conference and Expo in Nairobi (GEOEACE2024) from 21-23 February 2024. It was organised by Kenyan geoscientists through their umbrella professional organisation, the Geological Society of Kenya, jointly with the Geologists Registration Board. The society is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Professor Daniel Olago, the chairman of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences and research director of the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Nairobi, told University World News: “Geology is an applied science with a wide scope, covering all four spheres of the Earth.”

His presentation at the conference, ‘The future of geosciences’, steered extensive discussions on geosciences education, AI in geology, and big data analytics in Earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences.

Olago also chairs the Kenya Geologists Registration Board, whose mandate is to register professional and graduate geologists and regulate their conduct.

Geosciences and geologists continue to play a key role in discussions on climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste, especially on the responsible exploration and utilisation of natural resources.

Geosciences’ studies of the interactions between the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere, involve an integrated systems approach in investigating climate and environmental (landscape) change.

The studies examine the environmental sustainability of the Earth, its complex surface, rocky interior and metallic core, its oceans, atmosphere, rivers and lakes, ice sheets and glaciers.

Humans: super geological agents

Geosciences, intimately linked with biological, chemical, and physical sciences, have many aspects of how living things, including humans, interact with the Earth.

The education of geosciences is critical for public awareness and sustainability in the exploration, exploitation and development of minerals, water, geothermal, oil and gas, and the built environment. Studies of the built environment include visual arts, architecture, engineering, urban planning, history, interior design, industrial design, geography, environmental studies, anthropology and sociology.

Papers at the geologists’ conference delved into geosciences, public awareness, and sustainability, with critical insights into humans as super-geological agents.

Speakers included Tharaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Muriungi, the Technical University of Kenya’s senior lecturer, Dr Lydia Olaka, Kenya National Commission for UNESCO representative Dr George Eshiamwata, and Kenya’s Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Acting Director, Dr Evans Masachi.

Three views on geosciences

The future of geosciences was viewed from three scenarios – business as usual, entrepreneurial transitions, and future radial visions.

Olago is calling for an increase in the study of geology and the remuneration of geologists, decrying the wide gap with the standards in developed countries. “Let’s focus on the realities of today and how we teach, and the interface with other aspects,” he appealed.

Muriungi said Tharaka University aims to be a centre of excellence in teaching, innovation and community outreach for societal transformation. The institution is making efforts in research and implementation of initiatives around mining and dryland agriculture. He expressed concerns about the low uptake of mining courses considering Kenya’s new university funding model.

Geological Society of Kenya Vice-President Dr Christine Omuombo, a senior lecturer at the Technical University of Kenya, said it is important to define how to train the new generation of geologists.

“We can achieve this objective by bringing in the new realities with critical knowledge as a critical minimum and reaching out to the industry a lot more. Let us decolonise the practice of geology,” she urged geosciences academics and academicians.

The fundamental areas of social equity, economic development and environmental sustainability were discussed. Core to learning institutions were issues around curriculum changes and reframing the geologists’ relationships with society that require a serious re-look in championing the cause for geosciences.

Vital lessons for geologists from L’Aquila earthquake

Olaka said there is a need for well-trained geologists, noting that a 2021 study found many higher institutions of learning in Kenya were offering environmental science, not geosciences. She called for mentoring of girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and for more students to study geosciences.

Masachi said geologists need to make themselves heard and felt through legislation for the profession anchored in law. Omuombo agreed, saying geoscientists must be engaged in the policymaking process.

Olago cautioned geologists to maintain accuracy before speaking, citing the case of the jailed Italian geologists whose court verdict alarmed earth scientists worldwide.

Six Italian scientists and a government official were jailed for six years over statements they made before a 2009 earthquake that killed 309 people in the town of L’Aquila. Prosecutors said the accused had publicly downplayed the risk of a large quake after a series of tremors before a magnitude 6.3 quake hit the city. L’Aquila’s medieval architecture led to numerous building collapses during the quake. The scientists were found guilty of multiple manslaughter.

Humans altered Earth’s structure

In their studies, geoscientists are now scientifically recording that humans have changed the structure of the Earth’s surface, in what is referred to as a transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch.

According to scientists, the Holocene began after the last ice age about 11,700 years ago when the great glaciers that had previously covered the Earth began to retreat. In their wake, modern humans spread relentlessly across the planet.

“Homo sapiens flowered during the Holocene, but our expansion had geological consequences. The minerals we mined, the gases we released by burning fossil fuels and the radioactive material we produced have begun to make fundamental changes to Earth’s geology,” the Observer science editor, Robin McKie said.

A massive economic and industrialisation expansion across the globe after the Second World War triggered the Anthropocene era.

Human alteration of the land surface, of material and energy flows, and of Earth’s climate has led to the definition of the Anthropocene as a distinct geologic period. Scientists say the Holocene is now over and have baptised its replacement Anthropocene, which recognises humans as planetary influencers for the first time.

Meanwhile, geologists are continuing with their professional responsibility of exploration, exploitation and development of minerals, water, geothermal, oil and gas, and the built environment. Geologists work in mining and quarrying, hydrogeology, oil and gas, geotechnical investigations, geothermal energy, nuclear energy, engineering geology, natural hazards and risk (seismics, landslides and ground subsidence), archaeology and palaeontology.

Geoscientists’ role in ‘era of global boiling’

The role of geoscientists has become even more significant in environmental geology and climate science in the wake of dynamic interactions that have resulted in or are propelling climate change influenced by global warming.

On 21 March 2024, the World Meteorological Organization announced that July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded in the past 120,000 years. The announcement prompted United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to ominously declare that “the era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived”.

From the Holocene era to the Anthropocene era, we are now transitioning from the global warming era to the global boiling era. The big questions are: What is the role of geosciences amid this planetary heating scenario? What is the role of geology in climate change?

A substantial and rapid decarbonisation of the global economy is required to limit anthropogenic climate change to well below 2°C (1.5 degrees in the Paris Agreement) average global heating by 2050.

Yet, emissions from fossil fuel energy generation – which dominate global greenhouse gas emissions – are at an all-time high. Progress and action for an energy transition to net zero carbon is critical, and one in which geoscience sectors and geoscientists will play multiple roles.

Geoscience professionals will, therefore, need to recognise and take responsibility for their role in ensuring a fair and sustainable energy transition, and at the pace and scale required.